Bloomberg Businessweek December 23, 2019
TheheadyAmericaneconomyalsopoweredthrougha scarystockmarket
crashonBlackMondayin October1987,whentheDowJonesIndustrialAverage
plunged23%.Theculpritwouldprovetobeso-calledportfolioinsurance, which
institutional investors had purchased to protect the value of the stocks in their
portfolios. “The problem,” as a Nov. 9, 1987, cover story put it, “is that these mar-
ketswerenotdesignedforthelargeinstitutions,whichnowdominatetrading—
especially when they all want to sell at the same time.” Fortunately the stock
market quickly recovered and continued its upward march, defying our infa-
mous “Death of Equities”
cover from 1979. (Oops.)
Perhaps the most
consequential devel-
opment of the ’80s and
’90s was the export of
American-style cap-
italism around the
globe. BusinessWeek’s
European and Asian edi-
tions thrived on tales
of peripatetic execu-
tives taking advantage
ofmarket-opening trade
deals, delivering the mes-
sage thatfree markets
wouldyieldgood-paying
jobs and higher living
standards. The failure of
communism as an eco-
nomic and social model,
made official by the fall
of the Berlin Wall in 1989,
gave U.S. companies a
license to plant their flag
in dozens of countries
around the world. “New
markets, rapid advances
in communications, and
new sources of brain-
power and skilledlabor are forcing businesses
intotheirmostfundamental reorganization since
themulti-divisioncorporation became standard in
the1950s,”a Nov.18,1994, cover story said.
TheU.S.economy entered and exited
the1990swiththe wind at its back, inter-
ruptedby a brief recession in 1990-91,
a briefwar inthe Persian Gulfin 1991,
andnot-so-brief spurts ofcorporate77● 1992
In February, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates appears on the cover, jumping. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos “was also playful,”
recalls retired photo editor Larry Lippmann. “At some point they found maturity and stopped playing for the camera.”
● 1994
BusinessWeek Online becomes
a feature on web portal America
Online in December. Two years later,
businessweek.com is launched.
● 1992
Real estate mogul Donald Trump comes
to BusinessWeek’s headquarters in
March with lawyers, threatening to sue
over an article that estimated his net
worth at a negative $1.4 billion.
● 1995
An October story on Bankers Trust’s
sales of derivatives to corporate clients
is blocked from publication for three
weeks by a federal judge. A federal
appeals court declares the judge’s
restraint on publication unconstitutional.
● 1999
On Oct. 15, production
manager Nicholas White
is stuck in an elevator
for 40 hours after taking
a cigarette break. Once
freed, he leaves the
building and never returns.● 1999
BusinessWeek, with a
circulation of 1.2 million,
is the world’s most widely
read business magazine.● 1991
A 216-page special
issue on “The Quality
Imperative,” edited by
Bob Arnold, becomes
the magazine’s biggest
seller ever.
▼ 1990s